This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)

#1 | Back to Top07-01-2008 04:47:50 PM

Himeohji Kagaya
Sunlit Gardener (Finale)
Registered: 07-01-2008
Posts: 197

writer? reader? both? help.

if you're going to start writing a book or story or series of stories, which method do you prefer?  figure out every last detail about every last character, the city, the country, the trends, the history of the characters, the history of the city, the history of the country, etc, until you've run out of paper and gotten sick of the characters, or dive into a scene and see where the eff it leads you?

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#2 | Back to Top07-01-2008 05:44:06 PM

Aine Silveria
Pumpkin Bride
From: Allegan, MI
Registered: 11-03-2006
Posts: 2098

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

Somewhere between the two. I have one fantasy piece I'm writing that I needed to do a substantial amount of worldbuilding and character building on (they've been reborn how many times? magic works HOW?), but at some point, I just needed to stop playing with the back history of them and their world and just go at it.

Another piece, sci-fi this time, I just started going, making up the rules and world as I went. It's going to be a pretty nice piece, if I ever connect the prompts together. All the same, I like to have a general idea of the world it's in and what the characters are like. Makes me feel a bit safer as I write.

Last edited by Lady Chani (07-01-2008 05:45:59 PM)


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#3 | Back to Top07-01-2008 06:58:38 PM

BioKraze
Faceless Master
From: Yuma, Arizona (USA)
Registered: 11-26-2006
Posts: 8282

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

Oh God, I'm a details whore. I keep details on everything in a story, so I know who is doing what and who's related to who and how they're related and how science/magic/Magitek/whatever works in the world/dimension/universe. I keep tons of detailed notes for characters and other stuff in the world for a story I'm writing, if it's going to be chaptered.

If it's a oneshot deal, though, generally I don't keep notes on it as it's supposed to be self-supporting. I don't write many oneshots that aren't original fiction, but they do get written.


Roses have thorns to stop those who would dare deny their right to live.
Razara's Postulate: For every lover of lesbians out there, there is an equal and opposite attraction to Dippin' Dots.

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#4 | Back to Top07-01-2008 07:19:13 PM

Aine Silveria
Pumpkin Bride
From: Allegan, MI
Registered: 11-03-2006
Posts: 2098

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

Heh. I keep my serious stories in neatly organized folders, all full of notes and details and handwritten pages. Sometimes printed pages, too.

It really makes my stories rather un-portable. emot-gonk


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#5 | Back to Top07-01-2008 07:29:11 PM

Raven Nightshade
Someday Shiner
From: Louisiana
Registered: 12-17-2006
Posts: 2925

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

I get bogged down in details easily. However, they tend to get written in a story-like format. Even in fanfiction that takes place in established universes, I have to make stuff up to explain changes and plot holes and additions.


Sometimes I wonder if I'm ever gonna make it home again.
It's so far and out of sight.
I really need someone to talk to and nobody else
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#6 | Back to Top07-01-2008 11:47:00 PM

OnionPrince
Covert Diarist
From: Nagoya
Registered: 10-28-2007
Posts: 876

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

I'm more of a "re-writer." When I'm attemtping to construct a serious story or something, I'll write a whole bunch, read it over, decide it sucks, and rewrite it. This continues until I give up the entire project. emot-rolleyes

On a less self-critical note, I prefer a more organic writing style. The way I see it, characters and events should develop naturally on your own as you write, with only the really important stuff worked out in advance. Also, sheer amount of detail should take a back seat to internal consistency. I'm sure that 15+ years of role-playing has skewed my perspective on this matter, but that's my opinion regardless.

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#7 | Back to Top07-02-2008 12:35:34 AM

Clarice
Well hello, Clarice...
From: New Zealand
Registered: 10-16-2006
Posts: 3102
Website

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

I'm an inbetweener, I think, but I also write many stories simultaneously in the same universe. This is useful, because I tend to have a good working idea of things from the perspective of one set of characters and it makes writing another set far easier because I don't have to sit there worrying about details because I know them, and they slip themselves into my writing.

With that said, I used to always write organically, as such, and let the details come out in the writing. I can't do that anymore, possibly due to a lack of time; when I was in school, I rarely paid attention in class and was always turning over stories in my head all day. I can't do that at work, I'd probably kill someone. emot-gonk So, with that said, I find myself keeping a lot of notes and drawing maps and character illustrations. With that said, don't get caught up in the details -- you're likely to find that something you write ends up contradicting it anyway. Things will evolve quite naturally on their own, and you're best to let them!

Another thing I find really useful is writing short stories or drabbles that have little or nothing to do with the story itself -- or making "DVD extras," so to speak. By that I mean, take the characters and put them in an everyday situation and see what they do. Say, like the equivalent of going shopping at the mall in their world, or to a basketball game, or Easter, or something. It will tell you a lot about the characters themselves, but also about the internal and external workings of their environment and culture. These scenes and snippets may never work themselves into the final story, but their influence will. emot-keke


It takes forty-seven New Zealanders eight months to make just one batch of 42 Below Vodka. ...luckily, that leaves one of us free to be Prime Minister.

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#8 | Back to Top07-02-2008 06:43:41 AM

NajiMinkin
Hacker Ringleader
From: The Incredible Edible Egg
Registered: 06-23-2007
Posts: 2537

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

I am a complete diver. It really restricts me to know everything about a character before I start writing. My preferred method is to know nothing about who or what I'm going to use in a piece, just jumping in and letting the words fill in the spaces. If it feels right, it goes down on paper. If the former Born Again Christian turns into a Hare Krishna goth with a lust for feet, then so be it. And that happens more than it probably should in my stories... But with a little tweaking in my next edit, it totally fits!

And I'm a crazy rewriter much akin to OnionPrince over there.


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#9 | Back to Top07-03-2008 04:27:08 PM

Himeohji Kagaya
Sunlit Gardener (Finale)
Registered: 07-01-2008
Posts: 197

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

Clarice wrote:

Another thing I find really useful is writing short stories or drabbles that have little or nothing to do with the story itself -- or making "DVD extras," so to speak. By that I mean, take the characters and put them in an everyday situation and see what they do. Say, like the equivalent of going shopping at the mall in their world, or to a basketball game, or Easter, or something. It will tell you a lot about the characters themselves, but also about the internal and external workings of their environment and culture. These scenes and snippets may never work themselves into the final story, but their influence will. emot-keke

oh, i'm with you there; it's a way to get to know your characters that's, like, FUN; let them show rather than tell. 
...i use too many semicolons.
thank you all for your input!  i'd like to read your stories some time.

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#10 | Back to Top07-04-2008 03:46:06 AM

Clarice
Well hello, Clarice...
From: New Zealand
Registered: 10-16-2006
Posts: 3102
Website

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

Himeohji Kagaya wrote:

oh, i'm with you there; it's a way to get to know your characters that's, like, FUN; let them show rather than tell. 
...i use too many semicolons.
thank you all for your input!  i'd like to read your stories some time.

Pfft, you should see me and my semi-colon OVERUSE. It's not so bad in my posts, but in my prose? OVERLOAD! emot-biggrin But yes, the show and not tell thing is a golden rule, and surprisingly hard to keep to. emot-gonk I always end up telling too much, hence the editing from DOOM sessions I have sometimes. Until my head explodes. Er.

What sort of stories are you writing at the moment?


It takes forty-seven New Zealanders eight months to make just one batch of 42 Below Vodka. ...luckily, that leaves one of us free to be Prime Minister.

Beyond The Silver Leaves

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#11 | Back to Top07-06-2008 05:16:28 PM

Decrescent Daytripper
Best Disney Princess
Registered: 04-09-2007
Posts: 2791

Re: writer? reader? both? help.

For really short stuff (less than fifteen pages) I usually just wing it.  A few basic ideas, maybe a specific scene, but no great prep.

Longer than fifteen pages, and especially if its screenplay/stageplay and not prose, I do very light character breakdowns and a skeleton of the plot.  For work-for-hire material, I do it real tight, because it tends to make other people more comfortable and sometimes they won't go forward without, including several drafts of synopses and at least one go at the big board where you do an index card for each transitional moment and then cut out anything that isn't fulfilling its very own specific and individual function, before I even start the actual writing.

New ideas, fresh material, are always generated during the writing, though.  Sometimes it's just two characters rubbing against each other just the right way, or minor elements adding up to something totally obvious but that I'd never intended and so I have to run with it.  Sometimes it's just thematic.  Sometimes the family-friendly small 'splodey Summer feel good piece is actually a steamy lovestory of desperation and release on a beach at three in the morning somewhere tropical.  The comedy of manners is actually a tragedy about trust.

I have never understood the need to block out every tiny element including everyone's eye color, shampoo brand, and what they wished for on their birthday candles at seven.  And I find that people who overuse that method tend to also frontload their fiction by placing all that information as quickly as they can in large blocks, forgetting that the thing is supposed to move.

Anyhow, a request: more semicolons, people!  Along with the exclamation mark and the colon, the semicolon is dangerously and boringly underused today!


My Brain is the Wakaba and Shiori Funtime Hour. With limited commercial interruption.

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